The minister of Labour of Employment, Chris Ngige said the government cannot pay N110 billion revitalization fund requested by Academic Staff Union of University(ASUU).
Ngige, in a meeting held on Wednesday, disclosed that the government proposed to pay N20billion due to the dire economic situation in the country occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic.
However, there are three issues and these include the revitalization fund where the government offered ASUU N20 billion, on good faith based on the memorandum of understanding (MoU) entered into in 2013 as a result of the renegotiation with the then government in 2009. This present government is still committed to it, while we are giving them offers of some fund,”
“This government is not against revitalization but this government says that because of the dire economic situation due to COV1D-19, we cannot really pay in the N110 billion which they are demanding for revitalization.
“We offered N20 billion as revitalization fund. On earned academic allowances (EAA), the government offered N30 billion to all the unions in the universities, making it N50 billion altogether,” Ngige said
“ASUU is saying that the N30 billion should be for lecturers alone, irrespective of the fact that there are three other unions. So there is a little problem there. We do not have any money to offer apart from this N30 billion.
“As you know last week, the minister of communication and digital economy has approved that NITDA gets ASUU system (UTAS) and subject it to integrity test. This test should be conducted without fear or favour and as early as possible. So today, they have submitted the document for onward transmission to NITDA.”
Ngige said the government could not pay the lecturers their entitlements during the transition period because there was no platform for the payment to be made.
The minister said the government side will meet on Friday and would communicate to the union if there is a need for another symposium.